For once a book that I bought at full price! Scary, I know –
but Javier Marías was coming to give a lecture at the LSE and I really needed
to give him something to sign (being the first in line for an autograph after
the lecture, he actually even wrote a line about the book and its secrets on my
copy – yay!).
Much like Tomorrow in
the Battle Think on Me, A Heart so
White is clearly written by a literally genius. And as it was also clear
during the lecture, this is a genius who knows he is a genius, and makes no
attempt to even pretend to hide it (which is actually fair enough, although
Paul Preston – the greatest historian of modern Spain – did put up a really
good fight with Marías when he disagreed with him from the podium).
Dare I say, I actually loved A Heart so White, despite the smugness of both his author and of a
number of his characters, and although I hope that Marías doesn’t treat women
in the same way as his characters do. And the secrets of the book, the twist of
Juan’s father’s past, and for once even the philosophical reflections in the
final chapter are respectively intriguing and, for once, surprising and deep
(and I am saying “for once” because I am usually not surprised by big
surprises, and tend to find pseudo-philosophical conclusions to be borderline
unreadable).
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